A woman whose son impaled himself on a metal spike while playing football is now warning other parents to be careful.
When Melissa Smith waved goodbye to her son, Gabriel, 16, as he went to play football with friends, she didn’t expect to spot him being hoisted into an ambulance only moments later.
The mum-of-two rushed to the scene, where she found him lying on a stretcher with a pool of blood trailing toward the metal railings on their nearby football court.
As she feared the worst, the artist tried to find some answers – until she spotted a metal spike poking through both sides of his left leg.
Now, the mum, aged 53, is hoping to raise awareness for the risks of playing near dangerous fencing, especially since the teenager’s life was only mere centimetres away from being over.
“I felt terrible for him – but I was so grateful it hadn’t gone through an artery, otherwise the story would’ve been very different,” Melissa, from London, told NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“I just couldn’t believe that he got himself impaled on a fence.
“As his friend knocked on my door and told me Gabriel had had an accident, I thought the worst.
“I imagined that he had broken his neck or that he was fighting for his life.
“When I turned the corner and saw the blue flashing lights, my heart sank.
“I truly wondered if that was the last time I got to say goodbye.”
In a bid to retrieve their football, he had tried to jump over the railings, but he slipped and the spike shot through his thigh and out the other side.
Melissa, who also has another son, Raphael, 18, recalls the 16-year-old looking shocked and pale.
She said: “I felt so queasy at the thought of it.
“He was obviously in shock and described looking down at his leg and seeing, with horror, that the railing was sticking out the other side of his thigh.
“He told me that he lifted himself off and limped back to the bench – it was so gruesome.”
In a bid to stop the bleeding, his brother used a tourniquet to stop the increasing amount of pouring blood.
At the hospital, medics revealed how “lucky” the teen was, as scans showed that the spike had missed any major arteries and bones by mere centimetres.
Following emergency surgery to clean and stitch the wound, he was allowed home the following day in April 2023.
Now, he’s back to normal – but Melissa has a firm warning for him, and others, to not jump over any railings again.
She added: “I have warned him that he isn’t invincible, but I think he’s learned his lesson.
“I can’t understand why railings need spikes and I think the tops should be cut off.
“They’re only chest height, so people playing football on the pitch probably jump over them every single day.
“There’s no reason to have spikes and now I know just how dangerous they can be.
“I look at railings in a new light, as some of them are like deadly weapons rather than public barriers.
“I know it’s tempting to jump over, but just go around – it only takes a minute.
“And it only takes that minute to get impaled on a fence.
“I’m relieved that he’s alive and well, but he may not be so lucky next time.”
